QR Codes Aren’t Just for Ads & Mail
Thursday, 17 November 2011 13:40
When we think about the use of QR codes in print marketing, we often think about direct mail and magazine advertising, but just today, I read about two QR code campaigns that were something quite different.
The first was used by the restaurant chain Applebees to entertain its lunchtime customers. As part of the chain’s promotion of its 14-minute lunchtime guarantee, Applebees has created a three-sided tabletop tent featuring an image of a cat with a QR code instead of a mouth. Customers are invited to scan the code and watch the cat’s mouth rattle off 2:09 minutes of comedic monologue (“Are people staring? Wondering, who’s the weirdo holding their phone toward the cardboard cat?”). Customers would have to watch the video seven times to use up their 14 minutes, but it’s an interesting idea.
As discussed in PromoMagazine, the code is generating traffic. In fact, the TableCat QR portion of the campaign has seen what is considered to be a very high level of activation in the QR world (30,000 scans in the first month and 65,000 scans total as of the first week of November). While not due to the QR code alone, Applebee’s franchisee Thomas & King, which is running the campaign, has reported almost a 10% increase in lunch traffic and a 4.9% rise in total lunch sales since the launch of the “14-minute lunch guarantee” campaign.
J. C. Penney has an interesting QR code campaign running now, too. The code is being used for its “Who’s Your Santa?” campaign, giving people the opportunity to record a voice message to be sent with their gifts. You use your phone to record your voice online, then apply a sticker with the QR code pointing to the online audio message onto the gift. When your loved one receives the gift, they can scan the code and hear you speak a short message, such as, “Merry Christmas, my love!”
QR codes are moving beyond mere shortcuts to online marketing pitches and becoming integrated into our pop culture, as well as our business protocol. They are mainstreaming quickly. When you start seeing them in major campaigns by top marketers like these, it becomes clearly how “mainstream” mainstream really is.
